Feature

Impacted Market

Dental implants have been a great business, but competition is about to get tighter

THE MARKET HAS SMILED BRIGHTLY on two European dental-implant makers, Nobel Biocare Holding and Straumann Holding, Nos. 1 and 2 in respective global market shares in this fast-growing industry. Their stocks' performances also have investors grinning -- up over 140% since early 2003, outstripping both the broad market and health-care-equipment peers by a wide margin.

Nobel and Straumann dominate the market for prosthetic teeth with a better than 50% share of the global business, which is growing 15%-20% a year. They also...